Political editor Beth Rigby informed the Electoral Dysfunction podcast with Baroness Harriet Harman that she had heard from two sources that the prime minister would make the journey – which will likely be controversial – on the finish of January.
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She informed the Labour peer: “Now, we’ve had this from a couple of different sources.
“As I perceive it, it isn’t been confirmed, however I assume till they get on the aircraft, these items are by no means confirmed.
“But, you know, they might not really want people talking about the prime minister going to China, given the backdrop of the China spy case, and all of those allegations and all that controversy around China in the UK, the super embassy [proposal].”
She added: “But Harriet, what do you think? The prime minister should be going to China, shouldn’t he? Given that we economically want to grow ties with China? What do you think?”
Baroness Harman replied: “I think he should, but I think there’s no naivety around the government about, although there’s opportunities to cooperate with China on climate change, on trade, that there’s also major challenges that they’ve got to be wary of – so I think they’ll be going, but with eyes wide open.”
The journey is more likely to be controversial given the UK’s fractious relationship with China, made worse by current allegations of spying in parliament.
Earlier this week, MPs and friends had been warned of latest makes an attempt to spy on them by China.
The safety service MI5 despatched a warning to these working in Westminster about two recruitment headhunters to be careful for who’re working for Chinese language safety companies.
It adopted the collapse of a prosecution of two folks suspected of spying on behalf of China.
A spokesperson for the Chinese language embassy within the UK stated: “These claims by the UK side are pure fabrication and malicious slander. We strongly condemn such despicable moves of the UK side and have lodged stern representations with them.
“We urge the UK facet to right away cease this self-staged charade of false accusations and self-aggrandisement, and cease going additional down the unsuitable path of undermining China-UK relations.”
Rigby said the trip would be a “large second”, noting that the last prime minister to visit China was Theresa May in 2018.
Last month Donald Trump met Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea.
The US president described the talks with China’s president as “wonderful” and said “on the size of 1 to 10, the assembly with Xi was 12”.
You may take heed to the Electoral Dysfunction episode in full from 6am tomorrow.
